Good-bye December…good-bye 2013...

"Glory to God in highest heaven,

Who unto man His son hath given,

While angels sing with tender mirth

A glad NEW YEAR to all the earth.

                                 -Martin Luther

Remembering…in a year of photos

May you have a very blessed New Year!

One more...

Okay, I have one more awesome video that was produced by a family who acted out the Nativity scene.  The props, costumes, and children are precious.  More importantly, they do a beautiful job with the Christmas story.  The song that is playing during the production is called, "Come Ye Angels", by Grace Laxson and Tom Monson.  Sit back, and enjoy this wonderful production of "The Nativity." You will be BLESSED.

the nativity. from Nicodem Creative on Vimeo.

December not so daily…Reason for the Season...

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." -Luke 2:11

The artwork is a gift from Christy Tomlinson to all her fans.  It does say it all: "Hallelujah, Christ the Savior is born."

http://christytomlinson.typepad.com/christytomlinson/2013/12/merry-christmas-a-gift-for-each-of-you.html

I hope you will take the time to view this awesome video.  I cried through the whole thing.
Merry CHRISTmas to all.   Without Christ, there is no Christmas.

December not so daily…some fun photos

I have to say, I was more ready for Christmas…or at least in the mood for Christmas before Thanksgiving arrived.  I wanted to decorate, cook, and take pictures.  Now as the time grows closer, I am looking forward to the fellowship with family.  Warren got our tree out this weekend.  I have some decorations up, but not a lot.  I have had much more fun taking Christmas photos.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, all through the house!

I wanted some pictures with lights in the background with a lot of bokeh.  My cat was right in the middle of everything…"helping" me.

My amazing man.  See how I made the bokeh (dots in the background) into heart shapes.  Fun, fun!

Next Warren took my picture...

Then g-kids...

then this lovely, fun couple.  

Love, Peace, Hope, Joy...

Today's post is inspired by Debbie Payne…

Brrr…December Daily… not so daily...

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -Marcel Proust

My December daily has not been so daily.   The time is passing much too quickly as Christmas draws nearer and nearer.  I have been busy sewing up all my projects, packing boxes, and trying to stay warm.  We had a little bit of snow, that turned into sheets of ice.  Temperatures have been in the teens.  On Sunday, all the trees and various objects were coated in sheets of snowflakes.  It was breath taking.

A man "outstanding" in the field.  I am so glad my man went out to take pictures with me.  I think he is pretty awesome to do so, being that it was so very cold out.  Like below freezing. That is true love for sure.
 Look at how each brach of the tree is coated with snowflakes in the background.

Doesn't the chain link fence look amazing…and the guy standing next to it as well.

I wanted to show the vast expanse of whiteness all around.  Except for the dark figure in the middle.  He adds contrast. Except for his beard.  

So beautiful.  This is a tree branch.

Barbed-wire fence.

Even this ugly how down the street even looks pretty nice.  

More barbed-wire.

The roses look like they have been dusted with sugar.  

I wish I had gotten a picture of the trees lining the streets, but I thought about it too late.  I was awfully cold after taking these photos.  Especially my fingers.  You cannot operate a camera with gloves on.  It is still so cold out.  I am thankful for warm homes, electric blankets, and a husband who gets up before me, and turns up the heat in the morning.  Stay warm.

December Daily…day 4…God and Rob

"If you seek creative ideas go walking.  Angels whisper to man when he goes for a walk." -Raymond I. Myers

When I go walking, I find that is the time when I am very in tune to the voice of God, IF, I do not take my iPod with me to listen to tunes.  A long time ago, I started writing what I call "manna" verses on 3x5 notecards to memorize while I walked.  Now I use them to pray them back to God.  This morning I decided to take a photo after my walk to document my winter walking outfit.  I got a glorious picture, not of me, but of the suns rays…kind of like God was giving me a glimpse of His glory.

Back in October, I had a stye on my left eye that lead to an eye infection, and cellulitis.  It was painful, but worse…I looked just beautiful with a swollen, red eye.  NOT.  Warren told me to put heat on it, and started me on oral, and topical antibiotics.  I finally went to see an ophthalmologist, who said to keep heat on it all day, and continue with the antibiotics.  I should have just listened to my husband, and skipped the doctor.  Who has time to sit around with an eye compress on all day?  My solution:

That's right a headband around the washcloth trick.  The heat was supposed to help the stye come to a head, and drain.  I was told that sometimes they did not.  Then, it can leave a cyst.  I so wanted mine to drain.  Mine did not.  I was left with a small pea sized cyst on my eyelid.  Not cute.  Today, I went to get it removed.  I was actually dreading it when my ophthalmologist told me how they did it…flip the eyelid, and cut it out from the underside.  I think the worse part was getting the Novocain injected.  The rest just felt funny.  But it is done, no patch or stitches.  I am good again.  Well, I will be in a couple of days.

December daily...Day 3...Maggie

"I am not alone at all, I thought.  I was never alone at all.  And that, of course, is the message of Christmas.  We are never alone.  Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent.  For this is still the time God chooses." -Taylor Caldwell

I think that is a wonderful quote, and I thought it would go well with these pictures of Maggie.  When we are around, she is like a little shadow...well, except when she's sleeping.

Maggie...smiling.

Warren and I were taking pictures for our Christmas card, and accidentally left the door from the side garage to the house open.  Out walked Maggie to check to see what we were doing.  I grabbed her up and snapped this picture.  Not the best exposure, but look at her hind feet.  She looks half rabbit, and she is making great eye contact with the camera.  This picture illustrates the part of the quote that says "we are never alone, not when the night is the darkest, the wind the coldest."  It was dark, and blowing a lot this night.

I decided it would be fun to give Maggie some holiday color with this Boa.  She thought it was pretty fine to eat.  Actually, I think she has her head bowed, and is praying, "Dear Lord, help me get this thing off of me, and please let there be no more pictures.  Amen!"

We are never alone.  God is with us all the time, and in all circumstances.  "Let it be your business everyday, in the secrecy of the inner chamber, to meet the Holy God.  You will be repaid for the trouble it may cost you.  The reward will be sure, and rich." -A. Murray
...Today, prepare for Him room.

December daily…Dec. 2: Amber and Mark

There are a number of people in the scrapbooking world, both digitally, and paper, who are participating in Ali Edwards December daily.  http://aliedwards.com/projects/december-daily.  Basically, one just journals about December daily routines.  Last year I chose to try do the project, and found it very challenging, and a wonderful learning experience.  So, I decided to do it again this year as well, but with my own twist on it.  Today found me visiting my favorite websites for Cyber Monday deals.  Needless to say, I have been at the computer most of the day, not only shopping, but trying out some photo techniques as well.  Here are a couple of pictures I have played with today.

Before photo.

After: added a texture set to overlay, then brightened up with an adjustment layer, added a face brush in the upper right hand corner (can you see the man?), some brush words across the bottom, and embossed a letter in the left corner, and there's a paperclip in the far upper right hand corner

After I played with that, I started editing pictures from Thanksgiving, and did not get very far.  I ended up playing again.  This time with a photo of Mark and Amber.

Mark and Amber.  I converted the photo to Black and White, then added Sepia tones.

This has a lot added to it.  On the left is a clock, and camera.  There are a number of frames, brushes, textures, and words.  One says, "Keep me in your heart (heart symbol) for awhile."  The easy one to read is, "A single moment in time." That is why I added the camera and clock.  Can you tell the background is a picture of a road?  See the yellow stripe on the right side of the photo.

 I had a lot of fun putting these together, but have not gotten anything else done.  Oh well!

Fun in the snow...

"It snowed." -Warren McKelvy

It snowed the day before Thanksgiving.  More of a dusting of snow.

Back deck.  

scene from front porch.

 There were a couple of boys who longingly peered out at the white stuff.  "Can we go out and play in it?"  So we bundled them up nice and warm, and out they went.

 Look at the snow.

Sawyer 

 Sawyer had a hard time walking with 2 inches of ice stuck to the bottom of his shoes.

 It was like walking on platform shoes.

Boy on a mission.

Missing a glove, and where are his feet?

Uncle Mark was one of the boys who went out to play.  Jordan and I took pictures. 

Tate evaluating the scene.

Yes he likes the snow.

And he likes the rake.

Uncle Mark.  

After play time in the snow, PawPaw had story time with the boys.  They love books.

Pawpaw and Tate.

Sawyer with "raffie", and his drink.  

Sawyer listens to the story.  

It was a great day!